May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Vivint Inc., a security, solar and
home automation company owned by Blackstone Group LP, is testing
a consumer Internet service that it expects to become the
“backbone” of its plan to control almost all of the
electronics in customers’ houses.

Vivint, based in Provo, Utah, is providing the wireless
data service to about 1,200 customers in the Salt Lake City
area, founder and Chief Executive Officer Todd Pedersen said. It
delivers data speeds of 50 megabits a second for $55 a month.

The company, which initially provided home security,
introduced its Vivint Solar unit in 2011. It also offers home
automation and energy management services. The goal is to link
as many of the electronic devices within a home as possible, and
creating a data service will tie all this together, Pedersen
said.

“We look at the home, and everything inside the home, as a
way to bring everything together for consumers,” Pedersen said
yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New
York. “The backbone of that system could become the Internet.”

Incumbent cable and telecommunication providers have a
“utility-like” approach to customer service, he said.
“They’ve delivered, or not delivered, speeds to the end
consumer or maybe not delivered the greatest service.”

That may create an opening for Vivint.

“We think there are opportunities to disrupt industries
that people would probably say, ‘that’s fully-baked,’ ”
Pedersen said. “We intend to roll out that service in a very
serious way over the next couple of years.”

Blackstone bought Vivint for about $2 billion in 2012.
Pedersen owns 12 percent of the company, according to regulatory
filings.